Here is the answers to the Impossipuzzle in the November issue of In The Country and Town magazine
1 “Was that your new maths teacher you were talking to?” Greg asked. “She looked a bit young, is she in her twenties?”
Betty smiled. “That’s right, Dad, and she’s lots of fun. Today she told us her age is one less than four times the product of its digits. That’s our homework.”
How old?
ANSWER: Teacher aged 23 years old.
2 When Pam was a year older than Susie was when Pam was half as old as Susie was when Pam was as old as Susie is, Susie was a third as old as Pam was when Susie was ten years younger than Pam is now.
At least one of them is in her ’teens, and of course we have taken ages in completed years.
So how old is Susie?
ANSWER: Susie 12 years old (Pam 14).
3 “The twins? They are the youngest of my sister Jane’s children,” said Joe.
“What about her other three kids?” asked Andy.
“Well, they’re spaced one year apart, the youngest one a year older than the twins,” Joe replied. “It’s odd that the total of all the kids’ ages is exactly the square of the age of the twins.”
How old were the twins?
ANSWER: The twins were 6 years old.
4 Sam seemed to be digging up his square tiled patio when I dropped in on him yesterday. “No, only making it smaller,” he told me. “I’m removing the outer tile all the way round. That’s taking away one tile less than the total that will remain.”
The tiles were square and all the same size, so how many would he be removing?
ANSWER: 24 tiles to be removed.
5 “Homework?” Fred asked.
“Sort of, Dad,” he replied. “I’ve been figuring out a number that’s the square of its first pair of digits added to twice the square of the other pair.”
Fred jotted down some figures on a scrap of paper. “You mean like 2832, twice the square of 32 plus the square of 28?”
“Yes, but I found a different number.”
What was it?
ANSWER: Doug’s number was 7232.
6 “You can have all my change if you tell me how much is in my left pocket,” said Uncle Joe. “I’ve got twice as much in there as I have in my right pocket,”
“Let’s have a clue,” said Cathy.
“Okay,” her uncle replied. “It’s just one and a half times as much as I’d have in my right pocket if I transferred 37 p’s to it from my left pocket.”
Well?
ANSWER: £2.22 in Joe’s left pocket.
